When you set a fundraising target and then double it, that's generally a good sign people want what you're selling. Ares Management just wrapped up raising approximately $7.1 billion for its Credit Secondaries strategy, blowing past its $2 billion goal and notching the firm's biggest inaugural institutional fundraise ever.

The haul includes about $4 billion in LP equity commitments through its inaugural Ares Credit Secondaries Fund, plus affiliated vehicles and anticipated leverage. For context, doubling your target on a first-time fund is impressive in any market environment.

So what exactly is Ares doing with all this money? The strategy aims to build diversified portfolios of predominantly senior secured, private equity-backed, and floating-rate private credit assets. They're doing this by participating in LP-led transactions and continuation vehicles, working alongside other asset managers to structure deals.

"The success of this milestone fundraise underscores our early-mover advantage in credit secondaries and the power of the Ares platform," said Blair Jacobson, co-president of Ares. "As investors' liquidity needs evolve, we will continue to develop innovative GP and LP solutions that leverage our decades of investment experience and extensive relationship networks."

Dave Schwartz, who heads Credit Secondaries at Ares, emphasized the team's market positioning: "The final closing of ACS reflects the strength and market leadership of our Credit Secondaries strategy, which is supported by one of the largest purpose-built teams in the market. Our business combines Ares' multi-decade credit and secondaries experience and global scale to employ a disciplined investment approach, underpinned by our focus on diversification and downside protection. We are excited to execute on our significant pipeline in a rapidly growing and attractive market opportunity."

The credit secondaries operation is led by Schwartz alongside partners Sebastien Burdel, Chrissy Lamont Svejnar, and Luca Salvato. It operates within the broader Ares Secondaries Group, which has been investing across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and credit for more than 30 years and managed $38 billion in assets as of September 30, 2025.

For perspective on scale, Ares' global platform oversees more than $595 billion in assets under management, with operations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.